Clinic news takes group by surprise

Premier announces funding but ignores Bridgewater team that developed health-care plan

Premier Darrell Dexter was at South Shore Regional Hospital in Bridgewater Monday where he announced up to $300,000 for a new collaborative health care clinic that will help shorten waits at the local emergency department and help alleviate the doctor shortage in the area. (BEVERLEY WARE / South Shore Bureau)

BRIDGEWATER — The premier showed up at the hospital in Bridgewater on Monday to announce money for a new collaborative health-care clinic for the community but didn’t tell the group that’s been developing the concept.

“I’m really ticked,” said Ida Scott, manager of the Bridgewater Development Association, which established a team of business and medical leaders to spearhead work on the centre. “We weren’t invited and we’ve done a lot of work on this.”

Scott had no idea the premier, the area’s two MLAs and the CEO of South Shore Health had met with the media to announce funding for a new collaborative health-care centre for Bridgewater.

Her association created a “collaborative health-care action team” a year ago, and it appointed a building subcommittee about seven months ago that has been working on specifications for the centre.

Premier Darrell Dexter never mentioned the group as he announced the clinic would be built and opened as early as this spring.

Scott crunched the numbers to determine how much it would cost to build a clinic and sent letters with general specifications to eight developers who were interested in building it.

She asked The Chronicle Herald how much Dexter was committing to the project. When told it will be $200,000 to $300,000, Scott said that is within the range of what the action team had asked for in a recent meeting with the health minister.

However, she said David Wilson told them the province had little money for such a project and was not willing to take on the risk of building it.

In an interview after the premier’s visit, South Shore Health CEO and president Dr. Peter Vaughan gave the development association credit, saying it did a significant amount of the work.

Dexter said the clinic will bring a number of health-care specialists under one roof.

“We have found, interestingly enough, that this model does a number of things. It provides people with better care (and) quicker access to primary care.

“It also relieves stress and tension on the emergency rooms. When you look at emergency rooms, they are populated in large part with people who can’t get access to expedient enough primary care and this is designed to help alleviate that.”

The premier’s office asserted Monday evening that Dexter’s remarks at the hospital were not a formal announcement and that representatives from the development association will be invited to any future announcements and the grand opening of the clinic.

Scott said the development association’s team created a business plan that the mayors of Bridgewater and the District of Lunenburg took to Wilson on Dec. 17 following a meeting with deputy minister Kevin McNamara.

“We knew we had made a pretty good case,” she said.

Scott said the team requested a “very minuscule” amount because the developer would be taking on the risk of building the clinic.

However, Scott said she is pleased the project is moving ahead.

Vaughan said there is an “urgent need right now in the South Shore area for primary care,” and the region needs another five to seven family doctors.

Concern over the doctor shortage came to a head last week with the health authority warning people of unusually long waits in the emergency room. That is in part because a local family doctor closed his practice indefinitely over the Christmas holiday.

Dr. K.J. Gandhi had about 5,000 patients. A notice taped in his office window tells patients to go to the hospital if they need a prescription or other medical attention.

Gandhi could not be reached for comment.

“I see patients in my office who are crying, who are angry that they can’t see a family doctor,” Vaughan said. “We are well aware of the need in this area.”

Lunenburg West MLA Gary Ramey said he is “absolutely thrilled” with the financial commitment for the clinic.

“When people don’t have access to a physician, they go to wherever they think they can get access to a physician,” Ramey said.

“Quite often that’s been to an emergency room, which is not the purpose of an emergency room. But in fairness to folks, that’s what they’ll do.”

Lunenburg MLA Pam Birdsall said the clinic will complement the collaborative emergency centre announced recently for Fishermen’s Memorial Hospital in Lunenburg.

“These things all work together so this is really, you know, it’s a one-two kind of thing and I think a solution to a lot of the problems.”

Vaughan said the timing of the funding announcement is crucial because it will help secure medical students who will graduate this spring.

“They’re not interested in putting up a shingle and working in a solo practice. That’s not how they generally choose to practise today and that’s true everywhere.”

South Shore Health already employees nurse practitioners, mental health and addictions staff, midwives and dietitians who could be moved into the clinic, Vaughan said.

Scott said the association has six developers interested in building the clinic within 3.5 kilometres of the hospital in Bridgewater. All the proponents have investments in the area. She said some would be interested in constructing a new building while others call for renovating an existing structure.

The developers must submit their proposals to the development association by Thursday, and Scott said she hopes the financial commitment will give South Shore Health the “nudge” to enter an agreement with one of them.